Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Exxon will divest its viscosity index improver business to Chevron Chemical Company LLC to settle allegations that its proposed joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell to develop, manufacture and sell their fuel and lubricants additives would reduce competition and lead to collusion among the remaining firms in the market.

Consent order settles charges that the acquisition of Petroleum Information Corporation could create a monopoly for production and well history data used by geologists and petroleum engineers to find additional oil and gas reserves. The settlement requires Dwight to license a complete set of well history to HPDI, an independent competitor, or another Commission-approved licensee.

An association of 25 automobile dealerships settled charges that they agreed to boycott Chrysler if the manufacturer continued to allocate vehicles based on total sales. Competing dealers marketed vehicles offering lower prices on the Internet and were taking substantial sales from other dealers in the Northwest. The consent order prohibits the dealers from threatening to enter into any boycott or refusal to deal with any automobile manufacturer or consumer.

Consent order prohibits the association from entering into agreements that restrict its members from posting or advertising room rates for lodgings in the South Lake Tahoe area of Northern California and Nevada.

Nortek, Inc., agreed to settle FTC charges that its $242.5 million acquisition of NuTone, its closest competitor in the hard-wired residential intercom business, would violate federal antitrust laws by creating a dominant firm that could drive up prices in the market.  Nortek, based in Providence, Rhode Island, controls 31 percent of the market for hard- wired residential intercoms, through its M & S subsidiary. NuTone is the leading seller of residential intercoms, with about 56 percent of the market. Together, the merged firm would control about 87 percent of U.S. hard-wired residential intercom sales.To settle the FTC charges, Nortek agreed to divest M & S, its wholly-owned subsidiary and the second-largest seller of hard-wired residential intercoms in the United States.

Sky Chefs modified its acquisition plans, excluding Ogden Corporation's in-flight catering operation at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada from its purchase agreement, to settle Commission concerns that the consolidation of the two firms in Las Vegas would lead to higher prices for airline catering services. The consent order prohibits Sky Chefs from making certain acquisitions without Commission approval for 10 years.

Dentists in three communities in Puerto Rico settled charges that they refused to provide dental services under the government's managed care plan for the indigent unless they received certain prices. Under the terms of the consent order, the dentists are prohibited from jointly boycotting or refusing to deal with any third party payer to obtain higher reimbursement rates for dental services.

A group of physicians in the area of Lake Charles, Louisiana settled charges that they illegally conspired to fix the prices for professional services by engaging in joint price negotiations with third-party payers. The final consent order prohibits such practices but does allow the MDP to engage in legitimate joint conduct.